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To Kill a Mocking Bird

adapted by Christopher Sergel from the novel by Harper Lee.

Prejudice. Injustice. Humanity. For young Scout Finch, these ideas haven’t entered her childhood in Maycomb, Alabama. But when her lawyer father, Atticus, agrees to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman, her world changes forever. Harper Lee’s timeless classic delivers a powerful and deeply moving tribute to courage and compassion. One of the greatest stories of the twentieth century.
Season: March 16, 17, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31. at 8pm. March 35 at 5pm.

Don't Dress for Dinner

writien by Marc Camoletti

Don't Dress for Dinner is a frenetic case of mistaken identity with more twists than a corkscrew. When Jacqueline decides to visit her mother for a few days, her husband Bernard sees an opportunity for a cozy weekend with his new mistress. His bachelor pal Robert calls to announce his return from Hong Kong, so Bernard invites him along as his alibi, also hiring a Cordon Bleu-level cook to cater a delicious dinner. But when Jacqueline realizes Robert is coming for a visit everything changes, and the high speed farce begins! One impossible situation leads to another as the hapless friend Robert finds himself the target of both amorous attention and wrathful vengeance, while Bernard tries desperately to salvage a scrap of illicit bliss from the wreckage of a weekend.
Season: March 15 - 31

Ten Minute Quickie 2012

A ten minute play competition.
Ten Minutes - Ten Plays

$1,800 up for grabs
$1000 Best Script. $500 Peoples Choice, and introducing an aditional $300 Youth Award

Performances May 24 - 26 May 2012.

Inquiries: 10minutequickie@gmail.com - Paula 0422 954 837

Visit www.elthamlittletheatre.org.au and download a submission form today.

The Pirates of Penzance Junior

written by Gilbert & Sullivan

Season: July 13 - 22.

Moonlight and Magnolias

\writt4en by Ron Hutchison

Famed film producer David O. Selznick decides to stop the filming of Gone with the Wind three weeks into production because he wants a rewrite of the unwieldy script. He hires Ben Hecht to do the job in only five days. Only one problem: Hecht has never read the novel! So, Selznick summons Hecht and Gone With the Wind director Victor Fleming to his office and locks the door. Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men spend five days crafting a screenplay for what will become one of the most successful films of all time.
Based on a true story, this wildly funny and engaging tale illuminates the behind the scenes business of movie-making during the golden age of Hollywood
Season: August 30 - September 15.

The Hero of Queenstown

written by Reg Evans.

For the corny formula to work good must triumph over evil and after Feb 07 this triumph appeared more urgent. As in all good melodramas, the Villain's criminal activities are exposed, and in this case by his own servant, who is actually an undercover policeman. And by the end, all the main characters found their true love.

The Widow Mitten is to be evicted by the Villain who is also her landlord. The Hero of the play wants to marry the Widow's daughter, but when the rich and ridiculous Englishman buys the Widow's cottage, he has the deeds signed into her name, not using his act of generosity as leverage in his bid for the ever popular Miss Phoebe. After so many locals lost their homes the fire, the plays ending is moving and somehow, for me anyway, took on an odd relevance.

The involvement and support from the local community for this production demonstrates just how important it was. Local businesses, residents and kids (the youngest actor is 15) were all involved. Money, lights, props and the many hours of people's time that was given to this play ensured that, on its own terms, it was a great success. It will stand for all time as a memorial to one of Australia's great talents, Reg Evans, and to the spirit of the communities living in and around St Andrews.

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2012 Season

The Lion in Winter

written by James Goldman

Henry II of England has called to his castle at Chinon, his sons, Richard Lionheart, Geoffrey of Brittany, and that same Prince John - in this play a mere adolescent - who later persecuted Robin Hood. Henry haas released his wife, Eleanor of Aquitane, from her prison-castle to join them for Christmas court. He had put her there ten years ago as punishment for rai9sing an army against him. Philip, King of France, is coming too, while his sister, Alais, needs no inviation. She lives with Henry, as his mistress.
The business of the gathering is not merely festive, however, Henry is getting older, he needs to choose an heir. And this family is one in which political cleverness comes well before motherly love or brotherly loyality.
The battle lines are drawn; which son will inherit the throne?
Season: February 23 - March 10.

An Inspector Calls

by J. B. Priestly

An Inspector Calls is a compelling and haunting thriller. Written in 1940, this much-awarded play has had numerous revivals, it begins when the mysterious Inspector Goolecalls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their convival dinner party is shattered by his investigations into a young woman's apparent suicide.
Season: May 3 - 19.

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

First performed to the London public in 1895, this classic comedy of manners needs little introduction today. It tells of two flippant young men who, in order to impress their respective fiancées, pretend their names are "Ernest". Both their ladies believe this is essential to their happiness.
Season: July 12 - 28.

Summer of the Seventeeth Doll

by Ray Lawler

For 16 years barney and Roo, two Queensland cane-cutters, come south during their summer lay-off to suburban /carlton. Each has an ongoing romance with a Melbourne barmaid. As always, they bring a kewpie doll as a momento. But in 1953, their 17th summer, unexpected poutcomes await them.
Season: September 13 - 29.

Arsenic and Old Lace

by Joseph Kesselring

What happens when an alcoholic surgeon, twoe crazy spinsters, 24 dead bodies and deadly drinks cross paths?
Chaos ensues when nephew Mortimer, on a surprise visit to his sweet maidenaunts, discovers they are offering "elderberry wine" to lonely old men to quicken their passing to everlasting peace. 'Skeletons in the closet' isn't the half of it!
Season: November 22 - December 8.

2012 Season

Man Alive

written by John Dighton

In preparation for the New Year's Day Sale, a window dresser has the bright idea od utilisong a very special sun-lamp in the display window which contains two blasé female mannequins and Waldorf, a male mannequin fresh from the factory.
The rays of the lamp have fantastic properties: they turn the waxen dummy into a beguiling young man, and later turns Hathaway, the store's unpopular owner, into a dummy. While Hathaway is helplessly immobolised, Waldorf revolutionizes the store by throwing a free champagne party. He also thoroughly enjoys himself wiht the adoring female staff. His human life is, alas, short, but it is exceedingly merry, while Hataway's enforced sojourn in the display window teaches him a few valuable lessons.
Season: February 17 - March 3.

Never the Sinner

written by John Logan

It was called the crime of the century. Chicago in 1924 was a city dominated by gangsters, but when two brilliant younhg students committed a shocking murder, all America took notice.
This provocative play by Tone Award winner John Logan, examines again the strange compelling case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, and the psychological forces that brought them together.
In a series of vivid scenes, it recreates the private world of the killers, the frenzy of a scandal-hungry press, and the trial itself, as legendary defence lawyer Clarence Darrow battles to save the boys from the noose. This play contains strong adult thenes, and is unsuitable for audience members under the age of 15 years.
Season: April 20 - May 5.

An Evening with Chekov's Comedies

This collision of short works for the theatre may act as a modest corrective to the brilliantly accessible English productions of Anton Chekov's major plays that we have so much enjoyed in recent years. Most are farce, that pan-European genre which takes its themes from local indignities: adultery in France, snobbery ion England.
The Russian writer, to judge by Chekov's contribution, has more to do with despair, demoralisation and the blues. this is truly another country, populated by bored bachelors, woeful widows and perennial drunks, where violence and greed are never far from the surfzce. In hekov's scenes of provincial life, the touchpapers for comic mayhem tend to be quarrels over land and money, strategic alliances (usually marriages) and a sense of personal failure that lies as one character has it, 'beyond self ruin'.
Season: June 22 - July 7.

Loyal Women

written by Garry Mitchell

At the centre of the play is the Ford family, a household of women headed by Brenda, and including three other generations, her mother-in-law, her teenage daughter and her granddaughter. Brenad's husband has just been released after 16 years in jail and his return is the catalyst which explodes the existance she has painstakingly constructed since his imprisonment.
To add to the chaos, the Women's Chapter of the Ulster Defence Association want to hold their meetings at renda's humble abode and want her to demonstrate her loyality to the cause.
Season: August 24 - September 8.

The Glazed Look

written by Terence Journet

The fifth play is an hilarious broad comedy to end the 2012 season.
The author has cooked up an uproariously funny stew of ridiculous situations by taking ingredients from several styles of comedy and mixing them all together.
The stew simmers and blends, the action of the play gets faster and faster, thne humour becomes more and more infectious as the characters desperately try to control the situations evolving around them-and at the end the company is sure the audiences will come out of the theatre, like the actors, happily exhausted with The Glazed Look.
Season: November 2 - 17.

2012 Season

Same Time Next Year

written by Bernard Slide

George and Doris began ana affair in 1951, then agree to meet once a year, despite the fact that both are marrie tothers and have six children between them.
Over the course of the next 24 years, they develop an emotional intimacy deeper than what one would expect to find between two people meeting for a clandestine relationship just once a year.
During the time they spend with each other, they discuss the birts, deaths and marital problems each is experiencing at home, while they adapt themsleves to the social changes affecting their lives.
Seaso: February 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18. at 8pm.

The Peppercorn Tree

written by Alison Campbell Rate

In Tobruk during WWII during an early morning raid, Jonah Cloake makes a split second decision. The fallout takes root and grows to overshadow his life and future relationships, especially with his wife and only son. Burying his guilt under a veneer of jibes and humour, Jonah has succeeded in avoiding his past for decades. Now as he nears the end of his life, the aging Jonah reluctantly agrees to record his memoirs with a biographer and in the process is forced to confront his demons.
Season: April 27 - May 12.

The Shell Seekers

written by Terence Brady

Adaapted from the award winning novel by Rosamunde Pitcher, The Shell Seekars is the story of Penelope Keeling nad her family and the passion and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations.
The play is set in London and Cornwell between WWII and the present. The play is a story f love, courage and determination and of a painting called The Shell Seekers, which threatens to tear the family apart.
Season: August 10 - 26.

Me & Jezebel

written by Elizabeth Fuller

What if Margo Channing came to dinner and Baby Jane stayed for breakfast? It all starts when a mutual friend brings bette Davis to Elizabeth Fuller's home to dinner.
Davis calls the next day to thank Elizabeth for the lovely dinner (although the chicken was a bit raw) and ask if she could possibly stay with her for a couple of days while a hotel strike runs its course in New York.
Me & Jezebel is lizabeth Fuller's true life account of the summer on 1985 when screen legend Bette Davis came to her home in Connecticut to stay one night and ended up staying a month.
Season: November 9 - 24.

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The Mousetrap

written by Agatha Christie

The longest running 'whodunit' in the world is now about to be presented in Strathmore! With the limited release of amateur rights in honour of the 60th anniversary of the original production now frozen, STAG is thrilled to present this classic to Melbourne audiences.
Trapped in a blizzard, phone lines down, roads blocked, the uinlucky ocupants of a suitably isolated guesthouse are unsure of thier fate but sure of one thing: someone has murder on their mind!
What dark secrets do they share? What has brought them together in this place? Who will survive? Someone will die. Make sure you never tell whodunit.
Season: March 1 - 3 at 8pm. March 4 at 2pm. March 7 - 10 at 8pm.